EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Health tech startup, snap40, has a clear mission to change healthcare
globally by enabling hospitals to catch deteriorating health earlier
using its own medical-grade vital signs monitoring wearable arm-band and
accompanying analysis software platform. The Scottish startup, led by
CEO and co-founder, Christopher McCann - a former medical student at the
University of Dundee who left in his third year to found the company -
has secured £2 million in funding in what is thought to be the largest
ever seed round by a Scotland-based startup.

The first tranche of the investment - led by Edinburgh-based investment
firm Par Equity - closed at the end of September and will allow the
company to grow its already highly skilled engineering and data science
team, complete clinical trials and gain regulatory clearance, opening up
the entire EU market. The company also plans to move quickly into the US
market, opening a US office in 2017.

McCann started the company as a medical student working on hospital
wards where patients are only intermittently monitored. Christopher
witnessed patients avoidably deteriorating due to late recognition of
warning signs and decided to set up snap40 as a result. Joined by
co-founders, David Bowie and Stewart Whiting, Christopher left medical
school to build and grow the company, with a mission to disrupt a market
dominated by large, expensive bed-side monitors which anchor patients to
beds.

Edinburgh-based snap40 uses a single medical wearable device to
continuously monitor patients from the upper arm across more health
indicators than any other single device on the market. Crucially, the
company then uses this data to identify, in real-time, patients at risk
of deteriorating. By alerting doctors and nurses early, they can take
action, potentially saving the patient's life, improving outcomes, and
allowing them to return home sooner.

The patient monitoring market is estimated to be worth over $35 billion
but remains dominated by a small number of multi-nationals focused on
critical care monitoring. While a number of new startups have entered
the space, none monitor, from a single device, the breadth of vital
signs afforded by snap40 nor are they focused on early detection of
deterioration.

Christopher McCann said “This investment is based on the strength of our
product and the progress of our amazing team. We are excited to work
with Par Equity and the rest of our shareholders as we build snap40 into
a dominant player in the global people-health monitoring market. We have
a product that can save lives, while providing clinical and economic
benefits to health services.”

Robert Higginson, Partner at Par Equity, said “We are delighted to be
supporting snap40, a business with an ambitious vision for the future.
The team has already demonstrated the ability to deliver to its plan,
which is why we are supporting the business from such an early stage.
This is a global market with significant potential and we believe snap40
is the company to succeed.”

The company has already built a core team of 5 and is recruiting a
further 4 software engineers and data scientists over the coming 5
months, as well as building its commercial team during 2017. snap40 is
currently demonstrating the performance of its product in a major
clinical trial at a UK hospital and will be on the market in early 2017.
The company has substantial customer interest already, including a
contract with NHS England via the SBRI contracting process, the first
phase of which has been successfully delivered.